


Open Mouth, Insert Foot

by Merfilly



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Misunderstandings, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-25
Updated: 2016-10-25
Packaged: 2018-08-24 14:44:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,601
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8376118
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: Rex comes to a startling conclusion, and it makes him a bit stupid.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Set against any of my AUs where the Sith failed, and Ahsoka stayed with her unit/the Jedi.

Rex paused in helping to build the new home so he could wipe the sweat off his forehead. He then stood back, reaching for a canteen, eyes looking out over his men at work. This was a nice change of pace for all of them, helping a rebuilding effort on one of the worlds the war had hit hard. Naboo's suggestion that the soldiers learn trades that could help with that had soothed a lot of the need to do something, anything, that would make up for their part in the destruction Palpatine had wrought.

He looked across all of them, pleased to see them working side by side with the locals, some of them still unfamiliar with the tasks but gamely trying to learn from their brothers and the people that would be living here. That his gaze kept going to his Commander, well, he id have to keep her out of trouble, with the General on leave again, right?

He saw her with the town children, saw as she was playing one of their games with them. A smile touched his lips, knowing she had put in a brutal morning already, using the Force to hold prefab panels steady for the crews to get initial fasteners on. She had, at one point in time, been balancing twenty separate walls. Later, once the joins were ready, she'd repeat the performance with the roofing. Her willingness and ability to work with her telekinetic gifts had made their unit one in high demand. Skywalker was just as quick to use the Force, after all, cutting down on the heavy equipment needed for one of these projects.

He took another sip of water and watched as Ahsoka gently swung a small child up, her face lit in one of her uninhibited smiles. He paused in lowering the canteen as she settled that child on her hip in a motion he'd seen the Senator use, one that caused a curious ache in his chest to see Ahsoka do it so well. 

When had her hips curved like that? How was it possible that the short little tail at the back of her head was nearly as long as the two in front… two that were reaching well past the point he kept seeing in his memory? When had her horns, her montrals, begun to take on a curve with their height?

Hell, now he thought about it, when had she gotten to where she looked him in the eye?

"Captain, gimme a hand here?" Fives called, and that snapped Rex around, back to duty, away from his all too belated realization that the youngling had grown up… and he wanted to appreciate the woman she had become.

+++ 

Maybe it was because he had only just really noticed the changes that had been creeping in all along. Or maybe he was a little peeved at himself because he had only just noticed. Either way, that night around the town center, with a feast laid in and music playing, Rex found out he could actually feel jealousy. The locals weren't shy about asking them to join in the dancing, and since it was the acrobatic kind that appealed to Vod'e culture, a lot of the men were accepting.

So was Ahsoka.

Men, women, other genders… it didn't seem to matter with her, as she laughed and smiled and learned the local steps, or taught some of the ones she knew from other worlds. Being social came easily to her, and she seemed to inspire those around her to fall into her orbit. That was how Rex was seeing it, anyway, as he ground his teeth tighter, seeing her half-manage to sit only to be taken by the hands and led back to the dance circle.

"Maybe you ought to ask her to the next dance," Kix said, having slipped up and sat next to Rex without causing the captain to really notice. The medic had been running a clinic while they worked on building, like usual. 

"You take a bump on the head lately, vod?" Rex asked, as casually as he could, given that was just what he wanted to do. "She's the Commander."

Kix took a long drink of his fruit juice, then looked his captain in the face. "We leave rank outside of the berth, remember, vod?"

Rex felt a mild temper rising. "She's no vod," he growled softly. Kix glared at him, then, and stood up.

"Kriffing hells but she is, sir, by blood spilled and blood saved!" The medic stormed off then, angrier than Rex had seen him outside of Hardcase and Fives getting in over their heads and winding up in his bay together. 

The worst of it was that Rex realized Kix was right, on all accounts, but he'd probably just shot himself in the foot, if word made its way around to Ahsoka about this.

Well, it wasn't like he deserved even the chance to share a dance with her.

+++

"Captain." 

There was ice in the title, and he wasn't so certain he ever wanted to hear it again. However, she had waited until everyone else had left the ward room. The ship was on its way back to Naboo, their home system these days, but she'd ordered him to stay in place when she dismissed the others.

He thought that over one more time. She had ordered him. Outside of combat, it was never orders, just requests.

"Commander," he said, using the most neutral polite tone he could muster while not thinking about how her temper was making her lekku tense and flex.

"I will remind you of a lesson you once taught me. Do not, ever, upset a medic, especially the legion's senior most medic. Understood?"

"Yes sir," Rex said, even as he wondered how it had gotten back. It wasn't that he was surprised it had; he just wanted to know the route.

"And if Jesse invites you to a bit of hand to hand, I suggest you think twice about actually winning that match. Dismissed."

Of course. If Kix had still been upset when he got to his berth, Jesse would have gotten it out of his mate. Except…

"Sir? Are you aware of the particulars?"

"No, but I hope you damn well are, and that you apologize pretty damn soon. Kix has enough pain in his life without feeling like his captain is a source of it," Ahsoka told him, standing.

Rex considered that… and then he took a deep breath. "Then, Commander, I do. I apologize. I upset him over an insult to you," he told her, making himself meet her eyes. He saw one mark go up, before her eyes narrowed.

"I don't care if you insult me, but I have to admit I am curious what I've done to warrant it, and that Kix got caught in the middle. Especially when I am more than capable of defending myself."

Rex wound up rubbing at the back of his neck, dropping his eyes, before sighing and looking back at her. "It was undeserved, Ahsoka. I was reacting poorly to noticing a few facts, and when Kix… Kix pointed out a custom among the Vod'e, I made the mistake of being stubborn and saying you weren't a vod."

If Kix's reaction had been a kick in the head, with that sudden surge to pure temper, Ahsoka's reaction was a visceral gutting. Her face shut down, the lekku stilled, and the color drained away from them.

"I see, Captain. Well, everyone is welcome to their opinion. Yours just happens to hold the weight of near law among the men." She started to move past him, stubborn pride carrying her on. Rex almost let her go, and she even reached the door, hand nearly on the sensor plate.

"I was wrong. I knew it almost as soon as I said it, Ahsoka." His repeated use of her name more than anything made her look back over her shoulder at him. "Even as he was calling me on it, I knew I was wrong."

She turned to face him, crossing her arms in that way that trapped and obscured her lekku. "Then why say it, Rex? Why say something like that when it could have torn through our men, as they worship you and me alike, and you know I more than earned that right years ago?"

"Because if you are of the Vod'e, Kix is right, and I'm a fool," Rex told her. "If you are my vod, rank stops at the berth, and I've got nothing but my own pride stopping me from asking to be in yours. And my pride's just not worth it, Ahsoka, when I look at you and see more than I could have ever dreamed of in my friend and commander."

Ahsoka slowly uncrossed her arms, then shook her head. "You apologize to Kix, make it right with Jesse," she told him. She then gave him half a smile. "And you've had my codes for years, Rex. There's not a man I can think of that would be more welcome in my berth."

His eyes widened as she said that, and her smile just brightened.

Maybe… maybe she'd just been waiting for him to notice, he decided when she crossed the room and kissed him breathless. The one time he was as clueless as Kenobi had been about Cody, and it was over the same karking issue.

Cody was never going to let him live this down, he decided when she left him there, savoring that kiss and invitation.

**Author's Note:**

> I owe so many comments, and reading! but work exploded. Taking a minute to get this up, and I promise I will get to everything as soon as I can.


End file.
